Commercial Recycling Plan for the City of Fayetteville ... · Commercial Recycling Plan for the...
Transcript of Commercial Recycling Plan for the City of Fayetteville ... · Commercial Recycling Plan for the...
Commercial Recycling Plan for the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas Alexa Mizer
University of Arkansas Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, Fulbright College, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Project
Proposals
•“The city sent 50,786 tons of solid waste collected from
residential and commercial services, the dropbox, (roll off
container program), and transfer stations to the landfill in
2010. This accounted for 85% of the total waste stream
collected and processed at the City’s Material Recovery
Facility (MRF) and Transfer Station. Of the remaining 15% of
materials, 9% were recycled and 6% were composted” (City
of Fayetteville, pg. 7).
•“Including avoided landfill fees, the city of Fayetteville
receives $125.04 per ton of recycling material sold” (City of
Fayetteville, pg. 26).
•Before publishing the Recycling Resource Management
Plan, a survey was conducted. In this study, only 7% of
businesses said they did not participate in recycling programs
because one was not available, although many noted not
having enough storage spaces for the different containers.
•The commercial recycling program that currently exists here
in Fayetteville is actually subsidized by the residential
services fee.
LITERATURE CITED
Currently in Fayetteville, Arkansas, only about 150 businesses
participate in the small business recycling program. This
program allows for each small business to have up to 5 18
gallon recycling bins, at a one time fee of $10.50 per bin, and
a $5.88 recycling fee per month. Beyond that, larger
businesses have the option of paper and cardboard recycling
services. The cardboard program allows for 4 to 8 yard
dumpsters, and can be dumped up to 5 times a week. The
paper recycling program allows for a 4 yard dumpster, with
collection once a week. The collection fee is $32.76 per
month, and the business must lease the paper dumpster at
$14.73 per month. Along with these options, there is a 24
hour 7 day a week drop off location for anyone including
businesses to drop off their recyclable materials. Recently a
glass recycling program that consists of a dumpster or 96
gallon cart has been offered to businesses on or near Dickson
Street with once a week collection, at no charge to the
business.
The city of Fayetteville specifically has set a goal of 25% of
waste diversion by 2015. This includes yard waste for
composting, as well as other recyclable materials including
but not limited to cardboard, glass, steel, aluminum, paper,
and plastics one and two. Businesses and corporations are
often responsible for large portions of waste, and this holds
true here in Fayetteville. While the existing options are
helpful, only about 190 of roughly 3,000 of Fayetteville’s
businesses participate in the small business recycling
program. What incentives could be given to encourage
participation? Are there programs that work elsewhere that
would also work well here?
.
• Instead of one cart and up to 5 recycling bins for the small
business program, an initial implementation of 2 carts: one
for recycling and one for landfill waste, with the option of
keeping a 3rd cart for glass. This would reduce the amount of
space taken up by the bins, while increasing the ease of the
program.
• Mandatory recycling for businesses that produce 4 or
more cubic yards of waste and housing complexes of 5 or
more. This has been implemented statewide in California, and
seems to be doing well.
• Food waste composting. Use this at restaurants first, and when
the funding to increase the capacity of the program becomes
available expand the food waste composting to residential areas as
well.
• It may not be necessary to encounter and persuade
everyone to participate, but rather convince a few people
in each neighborhood, and the effect could trickle down. According to a substantial amount of research conducted by
Nicholas Christakis, a professor at Harvard, and James Fowler, a
professor at the University of California, San Diego, “everything we
do or say tends to ripple through our network, having an impact on
our friends (one degree), our friends’ friends (two degrees), and
even our friends’ friends’ friends (three degrees). The rule applies to
a broad range of attitudes, feelings, and behaviors and it applies to
the spread of phenomena as diverse as political views, weight gain,
and happiness” (Connected, pg. 28). • Because the City of Fayetteville’s Solid Waste and Recycling
Division receives no designated tax or subsidized funding from the
city, an increase in division revenue will be necessary to
fund any further recycling programs. In the blue charts to the right I
have given a phase one suggestion for increasing the divisions
revenue.
Sustainability Sustainability is considered to be a collective movement of
roughly four different domains, and this project bridges all four
of those categories. Introducing a commercial waste
management policy would increase the amount of waste
diversion from landfills and therefore reduce the amount of
raw materials needed for production. It would strengthen the
infrastructure for recycling in the area. New legislation could
provide incentives for more businesses to participate, which
would further the participation from the public and concurrently
alter existing social norms.
Working on this project has provided an avenue for me to
connect my majors, criminal justice and sociology, with my
minor in sustainability. I have spent hours examining existing
legislation for recycling programs across the United States, as
well as social and demographic data of those areas. After
doing this I was able to apply my previous knowledge to
develop a tentative plan that could easily benefit a city in
which I personally live. These skills and this opportunity only
increased my desire to study environmental law, which I will
have the opportunity to do in the fall at the University of
Arkansas School of Law.
•City of Fayetteville Solid Waste and Recycling Resource Management Plan.
•Cal. 75 Percent Initiative. Chapter 476, Statutes of 2011 (Chesbro, AB 341)
•Christakis, Nicholas A., and James H. Fowler. Connected: The Amazing Power
of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. London: HarperPress,
2011. Print.
City of Fayetteville Solid Waste and Recycling Resource Management Plan
http://c1ecolocalizercom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2009/09/bins-300x274.jpg
The Problem
Background
The Facts
The purpose of this project is to examine current corporate
and business waste and recycling policies in various cities
across the United States. After this evaluation, as well as
examining the demographics of and the resources available to
this area, the goal is to produce a feasible commercial
recycling program plan for the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Along with a more in-depth program, I hope to come up with a
more sociology-based outreach and advertisement system for
the recycling programs in an attempt to maximize participation
from community members.
This poster was prepared in partial fulfillment of SUST 4103 Sustainability Capstone
[Current]
[Suggested]
$.33/ gal $.27/gal $.27/gal $.27/gal
$5.88 $9.07 $17.28 $25.92